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The 1987 film "Ishtar" has long held a cultural status much larger than that of just a single movie, as shorthand for the utter worst, an epochal flop with audiences and critics alike and a huge financial bomb. Its air of failure has become all-encompassing, or as one of the songs featured in the movie put it, "Hello, Ishtar ... You're a state of mind." The notorious reputation of "Ishtar" as too-expensive and no-good has long crushed the actual film. Last summer, the headline of a New York Times article on the box-office performance of "John Carter" declared "'Ishtar' lands on Mars," and just recently an angry investor...

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The 1987 film "Ishtar" has long held a cultural status much larger than that of just a single movie, as shorthand for the utter worst, an epochal flop with audiences and critics alike and a huge financial bomb. Its air of failure has become...